Locked and Loaded: Take a Shot at Our Firearms Quiz

Cannons, howitzers and other artillery pieces produce more bang for the buck, but they're not so easy to carry in a holster. That's why armies need firearms -- portable weapons that infantrymen can carry easily at their side. The first firearms were small cannons. The concept evolved though, leading to a diverse array of rifles, pistols and revolvers. Now it's time to see if you're a firearms fanatic or a fizzling dud.

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Question 1 of 30

Where was the first gunpowder weapon developed?

China

According to scholars and archaeologists, China gave the world what it needed for spaghetti and spaghetti Westerns. The first firearms that used gunpowder to launch a projectile came from the Yuan dynasty in the 13th century. These bronze hand cannons weren't very accurate, but they must have scared the heck out of their enemies.

Mexico

Persia

Question 2 of 30

Which weapon was known as the Peacemaker?

Colt M1873

Samuel Colt put the revolver on the map during the U.S. Civil War when he made 100,000 of the weapons for the Army and Navy. After the war, the Army version -- also known as the Peacemaker or Colt .45 -- became the symbol of frontier life and outlaw justice.

Smith & Wesson Model 10

Springfield Model 1855 rifle-musket

Question 3 of 30

Which pistol did John Browning design to accept the .45-caliber cartridge, which was developed first in 1904?

Beretta 92F

Colt M1911

First, John Browning designed the .45-caliber cartridge, a larger type of ammunition with greater stopping power. Then he developed what some say is one of the finest weapons ever made: the Colt semi-automatic, .45-caliber pistol. The U.S. Army adopted Browning's new pistol in 1911 and designated it the M1911.

Glock 17

Question 4 of 30

Which weapon was hailed by Gen. Patton as "the greatest battle implement ever devised"?

AK-47

M1 Garand

In World War I, infantrymen relied on bolt-action rifles, such as the Mauser Gewehr 1898 and the Springfield M1903. By World War II, soldiers had something better -- semi-automatic rifles capable of automatic reloading. U.S. troops used the M1 Rifle, which became known as the M1 Garand after John C. Garand, the Canadian who developed the weapon.

Spencer carbine

Question 5 of 30

Which 9 mm submachine gun was developed for the Israeli army?

IMI Uzi

Maj. Uziel Gal developed his 9 mm submachine gun, the Uzi, in 1948. Its design made it easy to manufacture, and it also was remarkably reliable and accurate. As a result, more than 10 million have been made over the years.

MP38

Sten Mk II

Question 6 of 30

Name the most popular weapon on the planet, with more than 75 million made since the 1940s.

AK-47

Can you hear the familiar kalash klack? That's the sound of a soldier (or terrorist) preparing his AK-47 for operation. It's not the most elegant weapon, but the AK-47, developed by Mikhail Kalashnikov for the Soviet Red Army, is cheap to make and flat out works in any condition or environment.

M16

StG 44

Question 7 of 30

Name the first gun made mostly from plastic.

Colt Detective Special

Glock 17

Heckler & Koch VP70

When Gaston Glock introduced the Glock 17 in 1982, it was hailed as a "plastic pistol" and sent ripples of panic through air travelers who thought the weapon would remain invisible to airport security scanners. In reality,the Heckler & Koch VP70 predates it by more than a decade.

Question 8 of 30

Which firearm can rightfully be called the first assault rifle?

AK-47

Heckler & Koch G3

Sturmgewehr 44 (StG 44)

Germany introduced the Sturmgewehr ("Storm Rifle") 44 rifle in 1943. With a 30-round detachable box magazine and fully automatic firing, the StG 44 launched the assault rifle category and spawned a number of similar designs, including the AK-47 and M16.

Question 9 of 30

What does the "AR" stand for in the popular AR-15 civilian rifle?

advanced recoil

ArmaLite rifle

A lot of people get this wrong, so don't feel bad if you guessed "assault rifle." In reality, AR is an abbreviated form of "ArmaLite rifle." ArmaLite refers to the company that came up with the original design in the 1950s.

assault rifle

Question 10 of 30

Which conflict saw the first widespread use of the M16 assault rifle?

Civil War

Korean War

Vietnam War

The U.S. introduced the M16 during the Vietnam War as a rifle that never needed cleaning. This proved to be wishful thinking, especially with early designs. Still, the lightweight nature of the M16, combined with its low recoil, made it a popular weapon.

Question 11 of 30

When someone thinks "shotgun," this is the firearm the person most likely imagines.

Franchi SPAS 12

Remington M870

Remington introduced the Model 870 pump-action shotgun in 1950. Since then, more than 9 million 870s have been manufactured for hunters, sportsmen, law enforcement officers and soldiers. It's especially popular as a riot gun because it's more likely to wound than kill at moderate to long range.

Pancor Jackhammer

Question 12 of 30

If you were an 18th-century coachman, which weapon would you likely carry to repel highway bandits?

blunderbuss

Flintlock shotguns were popular in the 18th century. One such gun featured a flared muzzle and went by the name blunderbuss, which was Dutch for "thunder gun." This short-barreled rifle fit nicely under a coach seat and could be loaded quickly, even on a bumpy carriage ride, through its wide muzzle opening.

Gatling gun

tommy gun

Question 13 of 30

What do you call the spiral grooves cut into the bore of a gun?

breech

buttstock

rifling

Early firearms had smooth bores and fired projectiles with little or no spin. These projectiles had to have a stable shape to keep them from tumbling. Then came rifling, or spiral grooves cut into the inside of the barrel. Grooves impart spin to a bullet moving down the barrel, and a spinning bullet has greater accuracy over a long distance.

Question 14 of 30

Which handgun did Dirty Harry make famous?

Colt Detective Special

Smith & Wesson M29

"Go ahead, make my day." The Smith & Wesson Model 29 has been around for nearly 50 years, but it was Dirty Harry's immortal words, spoken as he leveled this weapon, that made it famous. Chambered for .44 Magnum ammunition, the M29 can crack a truck engine block with a single shot.

Walther PPK

Question 15 of 30

Which firearm became especially popular with Prohibition-era gangsters?

AK-47 assault rifle

Henry rifle

Thompson submachine gun

Designed by a U.S. army general, the Thompson submachine gun may be the most recognizable firearm of all time. Gangsters of the 1920s often wielded their tommy guns right before they said, "Eat some lead, copper!"

Question 16 of 30

Which self-loading pistol established the parabellum round as the world standard?

Beretta Model 1934

Colt M1911

Luger

In 1900, George Luger introduced what would become a firearm classic -- the P-08. The P stands for "parabellum," a 9 mm round that has been widely adopted by other gun manufacturers. Most people today refer to the weapon as a Luger, and it remains popular among collectors and enthusiasts looking for an accurate pistol that's comfortable to shoot.

Question 17 of 30

Which of the following best describes the sequence of events that occur when the trigger of a semi-automatic weapon is pulled?

fire

fire - eject - load

If you have an itchy trigger finger, you don't want an automatic weapon -- it will fire bullets as long as you squeeze the trigger or until the magazine empties. A better option might be a semi-automatic, or self-loading, gun, which fires a single round, ejects the spent cartridge and then loads the next round every time the trigger is pulled.

fire - eject - load - fire

Question 18 of 30

Which firearm, used during the Civil War, fired the .58-caliber Minié bullet?

Dreyse needle gun

LeMat "Grapeshot" Revolver

Springfield Model 1855 rifle-musket

Soldiers wearing both blue and gray used a rifle-musket known as the Springfield, after the armory in Springfield, Mass., where many were produced. The rifle fired a conical-shaped bullet named after its French inventor, Claude-Étienne Minié. Unlike solid balls, which passed cleanly through a human body, the Minié bullet flattened and deformed on impact, shattering bones and shredding organs along its path.

Question 19 of 30

Which semi-automatic weapon with a large-capacity magazine became infamous after appearing in surveillance footage of the Columbine massacre?

Ingram MAC10

Intratec TEC-DC9

A frame taken from a video surveillance camera in the Columbine cafeteria clearly shows Dylan Klebold carrying a TEC-DC9, or TEC-9, in one gloved hand. In the aftermath of the shooting, the TEC-9 became a potent symbol for the gun-control lobby and was included in the 1994 Federal Assault Weapons ban.

Mat-49

Question 20 of 30

A dedicated sniper would most likely use this type of a firearm.

automatic machine gun

bolt-action rifle

Snipers prefer accuracy over rapid-fire capabilities, and a bolt-action rifle fitted with a telescopic sight can be a lethal combination. During World War II, Russian snipers used Mosin-Nagant rifles -- bolt-action but with internal magazines -- to kill more than a few Axis soldiers.

semi-automatic rifle

Question 21 of 30

What famous firearm was found propped against a tree in Nevada in 2015?

a Colt Peacemaker

an M2 Browning

a Winchester Model 1873

A 132-year-old Winchester Model 1873, nicknamed "The Gun That Won the West," was found in Great Basin National Park purely by happenstance.

Question 22 of 30

The Australian Army used this weapon to fight against emus.

a Lewis gun

The Australian Army used Lewis machine guns in an attempt to fight off rampaging emus. The emus won ... or, at least, the army stopped trying to shoot them.

a Gatling gun

hand cannons

Question 23 of 30

Which of these innovations did Samuel Colt bring to the world of weapons production?

He invented the revolver.

He used an assembly line rather than individual gunsmiths.

Colt's use of assembly line mass-production led to the Colt Frontier Six Shooter's dominance in the American West.

Also called the Tommy gun (and a number of other nicknames), the Thompson submachine gun is known as the Chicago Typewriter in real life and in "Resident Evil 4."

Question 26 of 30

If you lived in 13th-century China, your weapon of choice was probably:

a hand cannon

Hand cannons were commonly used in 13th-century China and eventually caught on in Europe as well.

a mortar

a falconet

Question 27 of 30

Those pistols at dawn were probably:

flintlock

Famous for their use in dueling, the pistols drawn at dawn were most likely to be flintlock.

percussion cap

matchlock

Question 28 of 30

An 1835 attempt to assassinate President Andrew Jackson with two derringers failed because:

The assassin couldn't get them through the metal detector.

The assassin had forgotten to load them.

The pistols didn't fire.

Richard Lawrence, probably under the effects of lead poisoning, failed to assassinate President Andrew Jackson when neither pistol he had brought with him successfully fired. Congressman Davy Crockett then tackled the would-be assassin.

Question 29 of 30

Speaking of Davy Crockett, what kind of weapon was named after him in the 1950s?

a .950-caliber fully-automatic rifle

a recoilless nuclear rifle

With a top range of 2.5 miles and a 0.01-kiloton payload, the Davy Crockett was a tactical recoilless nuclear rifle that was deployed with the U.S. Army until 1971.

a shoulder-firing missile launcher

Question 30 of 30

A 1975 attempt to assassinate President Gerald Ford with a Colt .45 failed because:

The assassin hadn't chambered a bullet.

When "Manson family" member Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme tried to assassinate Ford in Sacramento, California, she did not realize she needed to chamber a round before firing.